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The setting is a small town named Cupang, a community set in an arid landscape. The townsfolk believed that the drought they were having was a curse placed on the upon the town for driving away a leper years before.

During a solar eclipse, Elsa (Aunor), a local young woman, allegedly saw an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary atop a barren hill, the same place where her adoptive mother Aling Salíng (Labalan) found her as a baby. Right after, she started faith healing local residents assisted by her friends, Chayong (Centeno) and Sepa (Quiambao), who eventually became part of her "Seven Apostles",[1] including entrepreneur Mrs. Alba (Palileo). Word spread around and soon pilgrims and tourists started arriving in Cupang to visit Elsa's house, distinguished by the big sign "Elsa loves you," to see her. At the same time, enterprising residents of Cupang started businesses like selling religious articles, offering accommodations, among others, capitalizing on the sudden influx of local and foreign patients and tourists.

Orly (Spanky Manikan), a filmmaker, arrived in town to make a documentary about Elsa, interviewing her and people who personally know her. Around the same time, Elsa's childhood friend Nimia (Dueñas), now a prostitute, returned and established a kabaret (a sleazy nightclub/brothel) for tourists, which was later ordered closed by the Seven Apostles.

One day, in the church's confessional, Orly revealed to the town's Catholic priest (Lamangan) that he saw two drugged youths from Manilaraping Elsa and Chayong on the hill. The filmmaker was holding a tremendous guilt; instead of helping the two victims, he continued capturing the incident on film, as he needed a scoop for his struggling career.

A cholera epidemic spread throughout Cupang, with Sepa's two children dying after eating tainted meat at Elsa's house. Chayong then hanged herself because of shame from the assault. Authorities quarantined Elsa's house, closing it off from patients. Elsa blamed herself for all of the deaths and decided to stop healing. Eventually, the patients and tourists stopped coming, leaving the town the way it was before the hoopla.

Elsa started showing signs of pregnancy from the rape. Mrs. Alba concluded (erroneously) that it is "Immaculate Conception" (when she really meant a Virgin birth) and proclaimed that Elsa is truly blessed. At the exact moment, thunder started roaring in the background, followed by pouring rain. The townspeople rejoiced and played in the rain, convinced that the miracle has returned and that the curse was finally lifted. Mrs. Alba and the crowd returned to Elsa's house and called out to her. She commanded her followers to call everybody to assemble on the hill.

In front of her congregation, Elsa, apprehensive at first, eventually professed that there were no miracles, no sightings of the Virgin, and pleaded that people themselves invent gods, miracles, curses and such. In the middle of her speech, a gun pointed towards her, was fired, hitting her on her chest and a violent stampede ensued. The old and infirm who came to be healed, including children were trampled upon in the mass hysteria. Injuries were everywhere.

Elsa gasped her last breath in her mother's arms, looking towards the sky while Orly and other reporters captured her last moment on their cameras. Wailing and crying ensued after the announcement of her death, and the crowd started gravitating towards her. As Elsa was being taken to a waiting ambulance, her followers lifted her lifeless body overhead, in a crucifix position, as the crowd wanted to touch her. Crowds were scampering all over the hill as they followed Elsa down to the car. Against her husband's will, Sepa shouted to the crowd, proclaiming that Elsa was a saint, a martyr for the world's suffering. She led the congregation in praying the Hail Mary on their knees going up the hill as the ambulance carrying Elsa drove away.[1]

Ricky Lee, a screenwriter, was told by his friend Gil Quito, who was currently working on Itim, about a female faith healer he and a friend visited in Malolos, Bulacan. The faith healer was cured of cancer by another faith healer, leading her to be a faith healer herself. She insists that medicine is just as good as the faith of people, but soon her cancer came back and eventually took her life. This intrigued Lee, enough so that he began to think about writing a story revolving around a faith healer, and soon he and Quito visited another faith healer in Tondo, Manila. While they were visiting, Lee and Quito remembered the story of the 11-year-old child Belinda Villas, who was living on the island of Cabra in Lubang, Occidental Mindoro in 1966, when she received a vision of the Virgin Mary, dressed in white. This became the primary inspiration for Lee's screenplay of Himala.[13]:11-12

Himala is the story of Elsa, a barrio lass whose supposed visions of the Virgin Mary change her life, turning her into an overnight sensation and causing mass hysteria in a poor, isolated northern Philippine village suffering from a drought. The film is centred on the issues of religious faith and faithlessness, morality, and truth.[7] As Elsa, Aunor delivered the film's most iconic line in the climax:

“

"Waláng himalâ! Ang himalâ ay nasa pusò ng tao, nasa pusò nating lahat! Tayo ang gumagawâ ng mga himalâ! Tayo ang gumagawâ ng mga sumpâ at ng mga diyos..."
("There is no miracle! Miracles are in people's hearts, in all our hearts! We are the ones who make miracles! We are the ones who make curses, and gods...")

Himala has won numerous awards and distinctions in the Philippines and abroad, including Best Picture from the 1982 Metro Manila Film Festival and the 1983 Catholic Mass Media Awards.

At the Metro Manila Film Festival, the film swept 9 of the 11 awards available. Aunor won the Best Actress award for her role in the film, and was nominated for other top acting awards in the Philippines. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival, where Himala vied in the prestigious competition for the Golden Bear Award.[14] The film was personally handpicked by Festival Director Moritz de Hadeln in the official selection.

Himala was the choice of the Filipino film critics' society Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino as one of the ten best films of the 1980s. In 2002, the same critics' group named Himala one of the best Filipino movies for the last three decades, from 1970 - 1999.

Himala was the only Filipino film that made it to the shortlist of the Best Asian Films of All Time chosen by CNN International in 2008.[15][16] It was cited for its "austere camera work, haunting score and accomplished performances [that] sensitively portray the harsh social and cultural conditions that people in the third world endure."

Originally, the collaboration intended to stage a "sequel," set twenty years after Elsa was shot (the same time that had lapsed since the movie was shown). It would have starred Nora Aunor in the role of Elsa, establishing her as surviving the gunshot.

However, Aunor was not available and the team went on to produce a musical version of the movie. It was staged in the Huséng Batutè Theatre of the CCP in 2003 in the 20th season of TP. The libretto was by Ricky Lee, music and musical direction by Vincent de Jesus, lyrics by Vincent de Jesus and Ricky Lee, direction by Soxie Topacio, set and costume design by Gino Gonzales, choreography by Jose Jay Cruz and lighting design by Benjamin Villareal, Jr. May Bayot played the role of Elsa together with Isay Alvarez as Nimia, Cynthia Culig-Guico as Chayong, Eladio Pamaran as the Reporter and Dulce as Nanay Saling. Bayot won an Alíw Award for Best Actress in a Musical that year.

"A CELEBRATION OF THE MUSICAL - HIMALA, 10TH ANNIVERSARY," a concert celebrating the musical will open on March 15, 2013 at the PETA Theater Center featuring the original cast and several new performers.

In 2012, Himala was restored in HD. The restoration was done by ABS-CBN and Central Digital Lab. The restored film was first premiered in 69th Venice Film Festival, and was released in the Philippines on December 5, 2012. "Himala" Restoration Project: Restoring, Relieving, and Re-experiencing a Multi-awarded Filipino Film Classic won the Anvil Award 2014 of Merit for PR Programs on a Sustained Basis - Art and Culture/Heritage/Tourism.[20]